Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Performance of Piles and Suction Caissons Subjected to Inclined Cyclic Loading in Cohesive Soils
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 148, Issue 6
Abstract
Cyclic loading on caisson and pile anchors can be a significant design issue, particularly with respect to cumulative vertical displacements that can lead to reduction in embedment depth and load capacity of the anchor. Most existing design methodologies are based on monotonic load capacity, often accounting for potential soil strength degradation due to cyclic loading. Because the cyclic strength criterion is often based on cumulative strains, these approaches arguably implicitly consider cumulative deformations. However, cumulative plastic deformations under storm conditions should be investigated. Piles and caissons serving as anchors for floating offshore structures experience inclined cyclic loading. This paper presents (1) monotonic and cyclic loading tests in the vertical and lateral directions, and (2) a finite-element (FE) investigation of different aspect ratios (, 5, and 6) of caissons subjected to different load angles ( to 45° from the horizontal). Additionally, it presents a precise method to calibrate the constitutive model (nonlinear kinematic hardening model), where the calibrated model was match to monotonic and cyclic lateral and vertical loading tests. Nonuniform load amplitudes were used in the FE investigation. The primary finding from the investigation was that the influence of the cumulative displacements increases when increasing the load amplitudes, especially for the load inclinations of 0°–20° for the lateral displacements and 20°–45° for the vertical displacements.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support from National Science Foundation, award number CMMI-1936901. In addition, authors would like to thank Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing (HPRC) for the use of advanced computing resources.
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Oct 7, 2021
Accepted: Jan 13, 2022
Published online: Mar 25, 2022
Published in print: Jun 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Aug 25, 2022
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